She said, “I am decidedly against school turning my kids into giant weenies who won’t know how to stand up for themselves,” and “I was never bullied so I don’t know what it feels like. My parents always told me that if someone tried to do something to me, or said something to me, I should take matters into my own hands and they would have my back.”

I’m not sure what she means by “tried to do something to me.” “Bullying” is a vague term, so it’s impossible to say. But if it includes pushing someone down the stairs, punching someone in the back of the head, or cornering someone and threatening to break her wrist unless she gives up her lunch money, then (in the adult world) those things are called assault, extortion, and robbery.

Adults expect to be protected from those kinds of things. They don’t expect to be told to “stand up for themselves,” particularly when they’re unarmed.

Even name-calling is generally not tolerated among adults. If you have a hard-on for harassing a co-worker, you probably shouldn’t expect to keep your job very long.

Not only do adults demand a greater level of protection for themselves than what they’re willing to provide to children, the advice they give children (“stand up for yourself”) is not something they follow themselves.

Of course, if we did, our society would be a lot like the wild west; everybody would be a lot nicer, and there’d be a lot more bodies in the street.

Personally, I don’t see the logic of telling kids one thing (that they should take things into their own hands) while telling adults something else (that they should go to the authorities), and I don’t understand telling kids to handle things themselves, but then forcing them to go to school unarmed. If you’re going to force kids to go to school and refuse to protect them, the least you can do is let them bring a weapon.